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Longing to be published?

Want to make your name in a new book of writing about Liverpool? Then enter this exciting competition to mark World Book Day.

Published on March 2nd 2007.

Here we almost forgot about World Book Day. How could we? Maybe because March 1 is also St David's Day, although we're not Welsh. Maybe because we were busy hopping about chanting “Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits”, as is customary at the start of a spring month.

But then we were brought to book, ahem, by Capisca, a Liverpool publishing company, who reminded us that we should tell you about its exciting new competition for writers, which it launched this week to mark the big event.

A series of five volumes called Mersey Minis is being compiled, of stories about Liverpool, all by famous writers from around the world, past and present, such as Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Will Self, Paul McCartney and Beryl Bainbridge.

It has been put together by one of Liverpool's finest journalists, Deborah Mulhearn, so it's bound to be good (that's enough crap wordplay's ed). The first one, Landing, is out in April and another soon follows, but we'll tell you more about that later.

Now pay attention: The third, titled Longing, will be published on August 28, the city's 800th birthday, and 20,000 copies will be given to away to the public across Merseyside – a little present.

Want to be in it? Well here's what you have to do...

The theme of the competition is LONGING.

Writing must be about Liverpool, the Mersey or Merseyside, although you don't have to have any connection to the city or even to have visited. There are just a few simple rules you must stick to:

• Your entry must be non-fiction prose, ie. not fiction, poetry or drama.

• It must be between 50 and 500 words, the shorter the better.

• The publishers are looking for evocative, strong, concise writing. They are keen to see entries from the widest possible spectrum of people and that takes priority over perfect English.

• Entry deadline is Sunday June 17. Up to two pieces can be submitted per person.